Correcting Images in Photoshop as a Workflow

I've found that the more practice I got making adjustments in Camera Raw, the fewer corrections I had to make in Photoshop. Better still, accurately adjusting white balance, exposure, shadows, brightness, contrast, and color saturation in Camera Raw isn't destructive. Making those same adjustments in Photoshop can destroy valuable image data that might affect the quality of my images, especially if I print them larger than 8x10 inches.

Unfortunately, not all images can be adjusted in Camera Raw — only (well, yeah) the raw ones! Let's not forget all those JPEGs and TIFFs that we shot in our misspent youth, or perhaps are even still producing. (Okay, I admit it: My everyday compact camera doesn't have raw as an option — only JPEG — and I take photos with that Nikon 7900 almost every day!)

But we can still make the best of the images we have. Behold: For fine-tuning images processed in Camera Raw — or photos shot originally in JPEG or TIFF format (such as the one in Figure 4-10) — I offer the Photoshop image-correction workflow (applause, please!):

Adobe Photoshop can be a complex tool only because you can do so much with it, however for in this video series, we're going to keep it as simple as possible. In fact, in this video you'll see an overview of the few tools and Adobe Photoshop features we will use. When you see this video, you'll see how you can do so much with so few features, but you'll learn how to use them in depth in the future videos.